Family tree in a face

by david

I’m a single parent this weekend. She was in a lousy mood earlier, so I took her outside to watch cars go by, which usually works. Today, not so much. This is a photo of us on the front porch. I normally show people the photos of her smiling or laughing.

There’s something about this expression that reveals a lot. When she smiles, it’s hard to see anybody but her. But here I can see my wife, one of my grandmothers, my mom, my little brother, my wife’s youngest brother, and when I squint, me. Maybe it’s because it’s such a neutral expression: her face could go any way in less than a second. She has the potential to be any of us.

It’s inevitable and it’s good and it’s bad that she’s going to grow up with more than the face of all these people.